According to Dr. Howard Johnson, author of the book High-Speed Digital =
Design,
this is the preferred method of decoupling capacitors placement for hig=
h-speed
boards. At high frequencies, even the small trace between capacitor an=
d the
power pin of the IC can have large impedance. For best results, the ca=
pacitor
pads should be enlarged and vias placed within the pads. Otherwise, th=
e vias
should be placed as close to the pads as possible and connected through=
a fat
trace.

Regards
Ravinder Ajmani
***********************************************************************=
****
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. =
....
Mark Twain

I have been looking at several PWB designs and have noticed that t=
he
decoupling capacitors are placed near the power pins of the IC's.
However, the caps are not routed directly to the power pins. The
decoupling caps have a via connection to the power plane or ground=

plane.

Is there anything wrong with this?

My assumption is that the caps are placed near the component and a=
re
then routed directly to the power pins of the component on the top=